HMI displays introduce enhanced safety support

10th May 2016

Mick Elliott

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The VSX family of HMI displays for mobile applications from Sensor-Technik Wiedemann (STW) feature support for safety-orientated use cases in accordance with SIL2. Offering a range of different sizes and a sophisticated toolchain for graphic programming, the new VSX-series represents an innovative HMI generation, providing users with scalable functionality.

The new family has been developed in collaboration with a display expert company which has conducted pioneering work on safety-relevant railway displays for many years.

The VSX-7W with seven-inch screen and the VSX-8W with eight-inch screen, both in 15:9 format, as well as the VSX-10 with 10-inch screen and the VSX-12 with 12-inch screen, both in 4:3 format, were showcased at SENSOR+TEST in Nuremberg.

For display applications in mobile machines, the most important feature is robustness. The displays fulfill this requirement with a durable housing, the resistance of the electronics against electromagnetic influences and a touchscreen in GFG (Glass-Film-Glass) technology.

This technology combines the advantages of tried and tested resistive touchscreens with the possibility of achieving input according to SIL2. The touchscreen permits use even when gloves are worn or if hands are wet. The MTTF (Mean Time To Failure) for the displays is 100,000 hours.

When used in outside areas, the light intensity of 1000 cd/m² is important, as this also guarantees good legibility in sunlight. In addition, Panel-Mount and VESA-Mount versions are supported for flexible installation in the driver’s cabin.

All members of the VSX display family are based on the same Cortex A9 DualCore processor architecture, and are all programmable with the same development and support tool DevKit.

Together with different display sizes and operating variants, this provides simple scalability within the family and the reusability of software. DevKit offers over 35 predefined widgets, of which the majority includes SIL2 support.

In addition, a large number of communication protocols, such as STW’s KEFEX, are integral components of DevKit. The inclusion of KEFEX means STW’s ESX controls be configured or updated. Ethernet, CAN and analog video interfaces are available in all the VSX displays.

Plug-in boards allow a nearly unlimited extension of the functionality. DevKit can be used both for graphic design as well as for communications and control tasks. The graphic design can also be seamlessly transferred onto iOS or Android platforms.